Author: Robert Greenberger

One of the more enduring concepts introduced on Saturday morning television in 1967 was Hanna-Barbera’s Herculoids. Some of this has to do with its fabulous Alex Toth design work and much of it has to do with the unusual assortment of people and creatures that band together to fight for survival in a hostile environment.

The series debuted on September 9 and CBS aired 18 original episodes before it vanished on September 6, 1969. Thanks to the miracle of on-demand DVD manufacture, Warner Archive has released the complete series on two DVDs this week. The eleven new episodes created in 1981 remain to be rediscovered.

The series was the brainchild of Toth but episodes were directed by Bill Perez, Paul Sommer, Ken Spears, Joe Ruby, and David Scott.  Clearly Ruby and Spears were inspired by this because there’s a direct correlation between this and their Thundarr the Barbarian (also available from Warner Archive). The Herculoids do not live on a post-apocalyptic Earth, but instead reside on the distant world of Amzot (oddly, not named until the “The Molten Monsters of Moltar” episode of Space Ghost, guest starring the Herculoids; a rare crossover at the time). The team of fighters is led by the husband and wife duo of Zandor (Mike Road) and Tarra (Virginia Gregg), accompanied by their son Dorno (Ted Eccles) and “Zok the laser-ray dragon! Igoo the giant rock ape! Tundro the tremendous! Gloop and Gleep, the formless fearless wonders!”

While the menaces were stock form the H-B factory, the series gets credit for letting Tarra have intelligence and work on a par with Zandor, a rarity in its day. Despite all the high tech gear that turns up, and its attractiveness to alien invaders, it appears the inhabitants are disinterested in technological evolution, happy with their fairly primitive lifestyle. They are nomadic, going wherever they are needed, from their more familiar homeland to the mysterious Gravite Island.

These were clearly not human beings given their prodigious abilities. Zandor, for example, had the strength of two terrans and used a slingshot that fired energy rocks. He also has a shield that returns to him much as Thor’s uru hammer can.

Some of their opponents, like Mekkano or Sta-Lak, want revenge on Zandor for something that has happened in the past, which enriches their mythos without giving anything away. Then there are menaces such as the “Destroyer Ants” which are accidentally hatched and threaten all Amzot life. With breathlessness, each thirty minute episode featured two stories so there are really 36 adventures in these two discs. The transfers are pretty good, although far from perfect. Hey are more than serviceable for those of us yearning to relive those carefree Saturday mornings when we weren’t bombarded with public service themes or teachable moments (beyond good wins out in the end).

Coming this week is the home video release of The Warrior’s Way and 20th Century Home Entertainment thought it might be a good time to examine the ninja film genre and determine which are the ten best. Their hope is that audiences will want to add the film starring  Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns), Danny Huston (Clash of the Titans) and introducing to American fans international sensation Jang Dong Gun. Our review will appear soon and you can always judge for yourself.

Meantime, here are 20th’s Top 10. Did they get it right or miss one?

SHOGUN ASSASIN

A story of honor, disgrace, vengeance, massacre and “the greatest team in the history of mass slaughter,” Shogun Assasin is by far a ninja movie classic. The swords swing and slice into action when a shogun’s wife is murdered and is forced into exile after being framed. He gives his infant son a choice between a ball, to represent freeing death and a sword, representing a life of threat and danger. His son chooses the sword and which marks the beginning of a violent struggle to survive in a sea of assassins. Of course, ComicMix fans also know this is adapted from the classic Lone Wolf & Cub manga first brought to the states by First Comics, with great Frank Miller cover.

SEVEN SAMURAI

From Akira Kurosawa, Seven Samurai tells the story of a group of samurai that turned their backs on fame and wealth to fight to protect a village of oppressed farmers. In what is easily one of the most epicninja-samurai films of all time, Seven Samurai weaves the violent genre with human emotion, courage and hope.

NINJA SCROLL

When demons wipe out an entire village with a mysterious plague, a wandering ninja, Jubei, teams up with the femme fatal, Kagero, to defeat the evil forces. With its mix of samurai action and supernatural fantasy, Ninja Scroll is the one of the most popular animated ninja movies around. Ninja Scroll is definitely an animated ninja tale meant for grown-ups!

REVENGE OF THE NINJA

In this martial arts action film, Revenge of the Ninja, a former ninja assassin begins a new life in America after his family is killed by other ninjas.  He ends up working for drug traffickers that he gets caught up in a face off. Revenge of the Ninja is known for having one of the most memorable fight scenes in ninja movie history.

NINJA ASSASIN

With its release in 2009, this ninja tale about a trained assassin has recently won its spot in top ninja movies. Raizo waits the day he can get his revenge on a secret society for killing his child-hood best friend. Raizo ends up being hunted down through the streets of Europe in what is one of the most action and bloody-packed ninja movies around.

KILL BILL

Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill may not be an honorary ninja classic, but does play homage to earlier ninja films with its revenge-drama style plot. The story follows a former female assasin, ‘The Bride’, left for dead by her ex-fiancee, Bill, and his entrourage of assasins, as she seeks revenge until killing every last one of them.  The two part bloody-action flick has one of the greatest sword action scenes to date when The Bride, alone, takes on 88 ninja assasins called The ‘Crazy 88’s’.

ENTER THE NINJA

Famous from his array of Spaghetti Westerns and Euro Crimes films, Franco Nero, made his ninja debut in Enter the Ninja. While visiting a friend in the Phillipines, Cole is a approaced by villain Charlies Venerius, and propositions him to kill his friend. Cole refuses which sparks a  fest of ninja battles and one of a kind stunt choreaphy. Definitely one for the Ninjas!

AMERICAN NINJA

A Martial Arts drifter with little respect for authority gets sentenced to an enlistment in an American Army base in The Philippines. After his platoon is attacked by a group of rebels during a Convoy mission, the colonel’s daughter, Patricia, is kidnapped and his entire platoon is killed. Joe has to rely on his street wits and ninja training in order to survive and save Patricia before it’s too late.

AZUMI

The main slayer in this ninja flick isAzumi, a female ninja expert, which only adds to its cool factor.Azumi is a young orphan girl trained by a Samurai to be an assassin. After being forced to fight her best friend to the death, Azumijoins a group of killer assassins that go after warlords that threaten to unleash chaos on Japan.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

The least likely ninja flick makes the list with its story about four small turtles in New York City. After coming in contact with a strange substance called Ooze, they mutate into giant turtles with human mannerisms. A rat named Splinter becomes their mentor and trains them to be ninjas. The four pizza-loving turtles become super heroes in New York City.

Given the unrest across Africa today, it’s easy to forget that there was similar troubles as country after country gained their independence from colonization in the 1950s and 1960s. The Congo crisis, in particular, lasted from 1960-66 as it struggled to establish itself after Belgian rule. Over 100,000 people died during the ordeal and it inspired a 1965 novel, [[[The Dark of the Sun]]], by Wilbur Smith.

The novel, rather than the actual events, led to the 1968 MGM film adaptation which is finally available on DVD from Warner Archive. The film has been a favorite of directors including Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino who lifted some of the score, and its lead Rod Taylor, for use in last year’s [[[Inglorious Basterds]]].

Taylor plays mercenary Bruce Curry who is hired by the iron-fisted president Ubi (Calvin Lockhart) to retrieve $50 million in diamonds from the northern country. Accompanied by his Congolese friend Ruffo (Jim Brown), Curry extracts a fat pay day and agrees to rescue the “unfortunate Europeans” stuck in a town about to be assaulted by the rebel Simbas. Curry and Ruffo are longtime allies and their equal partnership is a rarity in its day and about the only good thing to come from the flat script by Ranald MacDougall (as Quentin Werty) and Adrien Spies.

In the hands of the acclaimed cinematographer turned director Jack Cardiff, the movie has a roughhewn feel, matching the African land (although it was shot in Jamaica). Unfortunately, the script and performances don’t live up to the potential. Curry is a dull hero and every obstacle in his path feels perfunctory. There are complications from the former Nazi Henlein (Peter Carsten) who wants the diamonds for himself and chafes under Curry’s orders, a safe on a timer, UN peacekeeper fire, and reluctant-to-flee nuns.

Even Jacques Loussier’s score feels familiar. One of the first acts Curry performs is rescuing Claire (Yvette Mimieux) from her burned out home, but then there’s nothing for her to do but look pretty and concerned for the rest of the film. There’s also the alcoholic Doctor Wreid (Kenneth More) who gets his one moment to shine and that’s it.

The best moments, although they feel forced watching it today, as the conversations about race and life between Curry and Ruffo about midway through the movie before the action ignites and remains a relentless presence until the end credits. Much was made of the violence when the film was released because such brutality had rarely been seen on the screen at the time. Beyond the usual shoot ‘em up stuff, the Simbas invade the town, raping and pillaging with wild abandon. It’s perhaps the truest depiction of what must have happened across the land and continues to this day.

The 101 minutes plod along until we get a fairly predictable ending.  The transfer holds up and film students will probably enjoy studying this. The rest of you have to be truly interested in the subject matter or cast to bother sitting through this.

It takes a lot to make a noticeably different vampire film these days. The genre has been seemingly mined to death through the inanity that is the Twilight series to the more visceral thrills offered in the HBO adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ work in True Blood. Maybe that’s why it fell to a foreigner to offer us something messy but thought-provoking. Director Dennis Gansel conceived of his story, We are the Night back in 1996 and let is gestate in his mind before finding willing financial backers. Apparently, vamps don’t inspire moneymen in Germany so when the film failed to launch in 2006, Gansel went off to direct his acclaimed film, The Wave, and that finally got him his money.

The director says his inspiration came from the 1872 novel Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and it shows. Louise (Nina Hoss) has been seeking the reincarnation of her one true love, thinking she has found her time and again in attractive young women she converts into vampire lovers. Spotting the punk-styled thief Lena (Karoline Herfurth) at a throbbing nightclub, Louise doesn’t hesitate to bring her over to the dark side and only then begins the seduction, which backfires when Lena rebuffs her advances. Louise gives in to her needs rather than slowly explain things to the terrified young woman.

As a result, we get some sense that the male vampires have been killed off by the women and that very few vampires remain active in the modern world. Louise, therefore, fronts a trio of vamps, the other two being women she incorrectly thought had been the reincarnation she sought. There’s the lustful Nora (Anna Fischer) and the smoldering Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich) and the three have reveled in being vampires, giving in to their temptations without a second thought. They eat, dance, drink, fornicate, and drive real fast, sexy cars. All the while, Louise works on Lena, who rebuffs her attempts without a real sense of why.

Meantime, Lena has encountered a cute cop, Tom (Max Riemelt), just before her transformation and he is the only one she thinks she can turn to when it’s clear this is not a lifestyle she wants forever. Tom, though, is investigating cases that bring their worlds onto a collision course.

Shot in and around Berlin, the film is dark and gritty when it’s not being slick and seductive. The dialogue is sparse which is a shame since more character development would have been appreciated. There are some story logic flaws mixed in with some terrific character bits. Gansel can certainly evoke mood, creating an erotic vampire thriller without nudity or copious amounts of blood and gore.

This should be Louise and Lena’s story but instead, the emotional core of being a vampire is stolen by Charlotte, the one-time silent film star, who has the most emotionally powerful scene in the film.

As vampire films go, this one is way above average but far from perfect. It’s currently playing the festival circuit in America and IFC films has already made it available as a digital download. A DVD will be released later this year and it’s certainly worth a look.

On the one hand, you have to wonder what took so long for Hanna-Barbera to get around to having their two most famous franchises meet. On the other, maybe they should have waited for inspiration. Today, Warner Archive is releasing The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones and the 96 minutes went by at a glacial pace.

This 1987 television production features just about every significant character from both shows with the possible exception of the Great Gazoo. The simple premise has Elroy building a time machine for a class project and the hilarity begins when the entire Jetson family is accidentally transported to the past.

By the time the story ends, both families have had a chance to experience how the other half lives with parallel issues of both bread-winners having their jobs on the line. In the future, Spacely Sprockets has been on a losing streak with Mr., Spacely believing George Jetson was responsible for industrial espionage. Meantime, Mr. Slate is fighting to keep from losing his company to arch rival Turk Tarpit.

Writers Don Nelson and Arthur Alsberg should have spent some time watching reruns of It’s About Time, the 1960s sitcom about astronauts accidentally catapulted back to the days of the caveman. The “fish out of water” motif would have been more interesting to watch than the ease with which the two families adjusted to their alien surroundings. Instead, they pad out the script with an odd subplot showing George earning fabulous wealth thanks to a flying demonstration. He and Jane then essentially buy up Bedrock and the plot goes nowhere and ends with a thud.

Everyone has a moment to shine or be the butt of the joke, with Mr. Spacely particularly stupid as he sees Fred in the Jetson apartment and somehow concludes its his employee in disguise. Jane, Wilma, and Betty prove to be the sensible ones while the men folk remain idealistic fools. The one character to experience some real drama is Judy, who falls for rock star Iggy Sandstone (whose band plays an original song clearly patterned after “Monster Mash”), and is conflicted about whether to stay with him or return home. Even Dino and Astro get their moments as the two animals see one another more as rivals than friends.

I’m not sure what message is being sent by having Rosie, the beloved robot servant, repeatedly wind up saving the day.

I do miss Alan Reed as Fred’s voice but Henry Corden does a fine job and it’s nice to have George O’Hearn, Jean Vader Pyl, Mel Blanc, Daws, Butler, and Don Messick back in their familiar places. The only voice that sounds off is Julie McWhirter’s Betty.

The video transfer is more than acceptable and this is for H-B afficianados.

We never quite cottoned to The Transformers in any incarnation but we do recognzie it has a fervent following. We also recognize the following news will be most welcome by diehard fans of the animated incarnation. It certainly will help pass the time until the third feature film is unleashed. Here’s the formal announcement:

This summer, loyal fans and collectors can finally bring home a new installment of the ongoing animated saga of TRANSFORMERS as FORTRESS MAXIMUS, SCORPONOK and rest of the Headmasters make their U.S. home entertainment debut in TRANSFORMERS: THE JAPANESE COLLECTION – Headmasters DVD set from Shout! Factory, in collaboration with Hasbro, Inc.

THE TRANSFORMERS – Headmasters is the first part of the rare Japanese trilogy that followed the popular “Generation 1” animated series. Available for the first time in North America, this collectible 4-DVD set features the complete action-packed episodes from the Headmasters series and contains the original Japanese language tracks along with updated English subtitles, a rare art gallery and more! Poised to attract an audience of pop culture enthusiasts, kids and parents who grew up with the American animated series, TRANSFORMERS: The Japanese Collection – Headmasters is priced to own with a suggested retail price of $29.93.

TRANSFORMERS: THE JAPANESE COLLECTION – Headmasters4-DVD Set

Synopsis:

Optimus Prime lives again, the energy of the Matrix has been released and peace reigns on Cybertron . . . but all that is about to change with the startling arrival of the newest breed of Transformers warriors — the Headmasters! Bonus Features Include:

1. Original Japanese Audio
2. English Subtitles
3. Art Gallery